The Local Business Center has never been perfect but since being upgraded late last week, the complaints have been streaming into the Google Maps Business Owners Group and the Google Maps Troubleshooting Group. There have been problems with bulk uploading, coupons, image uploading, location pin adjustment and more in the new interface. Google Map’s Guides have been conspicuously absent from the groups.
Tonight Maps Guide Brian, ever the master of understatement, sent out this alert to Group members:
We understand some users are encountering system errors in the Local
Business Center. We’re working quickly to resolve these issues. Stay
tuned for an update!
Now let’s see what ‘quickly’ actually means so we can use that as a reference in the future.
Comment by martijn (77 comments) — June 19, 2008 @ 5:11 am
Spring cleaning is a phenomena that occurs once a year. Its a great time to get rid of junk.
This “spring cleaning” is taking place after a little more than 1 and 1/2 years during which Maps has gained greater visibility by being placed in organic search as an element of universal search.
Its a great time to get rid of junk.
Good luck, Google.
Dave
Dave
Comment by earlpearl (784 comments) — June 19, 2008 @ 11:19 am
the main problem, i find to be is the how easy it is to game google and sent many fake addresses that will control high searched queries.
in some verticals, we are talking about 5 out of ten… come on.
i was wandering if anyone has some good statics, or least observations, as to how the maps effected clicking rates on original natural results.
also i would love to find out how the ten box is working compere to the three box.
Comment by ilan (3 comments) — June 19, 2008 @ 12:03 pm
Thanks Mike.
Comment by panzermike (225 comments) — June 19, 2008 @ 1:35 pm
It will be interesting to see if information posted as new in the last couple of weeks will come out intact when the repairs are made. I would assume that it will be important to check all listing when Google lets us know things are fixed.
Comment by David Cox (6 comments) — June 20, 2008 @ 6:25 am
Oh my – that is definitely a bit of an understandment. I’m totally underwhelmed.
I’ve started my stopwatch. Do you think it would be inappropriate to have a betting pool? A bit of a lottery to see when they will get this rectified?
It would be highly adviseable to keep a close eye on all work that has been done in this time period. Last time I lost over a hundred listings. A week ago I lost 21 listings out of my LBC. Coincidence? I think not.
Joan
Comment by Joan van Hilten (102 comments) — June 20, 2008 @ 6:58 am
@Dave, Joan, David Cox – I totally agree that this “spring cleaning” should be watched closely as it seems likely that some data was once again misplaced.
@ilan good stats on user behavior seem to be MIA, not just how the Local Oneboxes affected the organic results but how users behaved with the various OneBoxes when presented…do they go into maps?, do they call? Are they more likely to buy? This is a topic of great interest that could use some careful and critical insight.
@All What still isn’t working properly as of Friday EST morning in the LBC? Google seems to be telling me that all is well….
Comment by Mike Blumenthal (1947 comments) — June 20, 2008 @ 7:31 am
@ Joan-
I think it best if you run the pool out of Canada. I am sure that I would be violating some terrorist law related to money laundering if I attempted to execute from the US.
Mike
Comment by Mike Blumenthal (1947 comments) — June 20, 2008 @ 7:35 am
oh well – as my father would say ” never bet with money you aren’t willing to lose” and with Google on the table, I ain’t willing to lose a wooden nickle to them.
Joan
Comment by Joan van Hilten (102 comments) — June 23, 2008 @ 11:39 am
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